Monthly Archives: February 2013

The 14th February marks the day when my PlayStation Network account turns five. The ingredients for the cake are in the cupboard and ready to go, but since Musical Monday has been feeling left out recently, I thought it would be neat to run through some of my favourite games and most memorable pieces of music that my PS3 has allowed me to bring into my home. If everything works out these posts will all be finished by the dawn of February 14th and this month will take the title of most active month of posting for me on here.

Let’s start with the game that began my PS3 gaming experience, Ridge Racer 7. This is a game that takes all the physics of driving and drops them in the trashcan outside the studio. What you’re left with is a brilliantly unrealistic masterclass in the art of drifting. Cars flying around corners sideways is normal for this game, and for this reason both singleplayer and multiplayer were never unable to provide enjoyment. Progress far enough in this game and you were rewarded with a rocket-powered limo and a vehicle that’s closest comparison I can think of is the Shagohod from Metal Gear Solid 3. It lacked the missile launcher of the Shagohod, but it didn’t look much like your average car either. Let’s call it the happy medium for now. The soundtrack was brilliant throughout, and here we have one of my favourites. My ‘lucky music’ as it were.

My second choice for year 1 is still my favourite third-person shooter, and was the first game that I put any significant amount of time into playing multiplayer. Please welcome Warhawk to the spotlight. During my time playing I reached the lofty rank of Command Sergeant and was somehow able to obtain the Master Tank Medal, the game’s mid-level commendation. Warhawk may have been criticised in some camps for being an multiplayer only game, but I had many fantastic evenings playing it with my friends. In my opinion it also has the best capture the flag model on the PS3. Unfortunately, I’ve never gotten around to buying Starhawk, but the happy memories of the shenanigans me and my friends got up to while playing Warhawk will remain forever more.

The music I have chosen comes from the pre-1.3 version of the game. The old main menu music still makes me smile today.

My final choice for year 1 comes from one of my favourite video game developers, Naughty Dog. Having already won me over during the PS1 and PS2 days with the Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter series, it went without saying that their PS3 newcomer Nathan Drake would be finding his way into my home. Uncharted didn’t disappoint. It had my favourite video game setting, hidden away in the islands and jungles of lands far sunnier than my home. It had three brilliant protagonists in Nathan, Sully and Elena Fisher. And to top it all Naughty Dog had even included a few trinkets to remind us of their past games. The soundtrack fitted beautifully with the game, and I still don’t think it’s possible to listen to the title music without having an urge for adventure surging through your veins. This was my favourite of all the games I played in year one, and here’s Nate’s theme in all its adventurous glory. Please give us more, Naughty Dog.

Today a new (and hopefully fairly regular) series of posts begins here on the Formula Magician. I’ll be writing more about my personal life, and all going to plan, these will be posted alongside my returning game ramblings to add a touch of variety to what I post here. The goal of these posts will be, as the title suggests, to chart my journey through my A Level studies and on to university.

These posts begin where I hope they will end – on the subject of university. I booked a place on my first university open day last week, so in June I will be heading eastwards for my first ever visit to the town of Norwich to look around what is currently the university I’d most like to attend – the University of East Anglia. I first looked at this university when it was the first result on a Google search for ‘Chemistry degrees’ or something similar. I loved the look of the website, and soon after I ordered a prospectus, and everything it contained helped me to set my heart on studying there. Needless to say the 22nd of June can’t come fast enough.

Chemistry and biology are both very practical-heavy at the moment. So far I’ve done three assessed practicals in chemistry – two ‘real’ quantitative and one practice qualitative. My best score for the quantitative assessment was 14/15, which I was very happy with. I hope to receive my marks for the practice one I did in chemistry tomorrow, alongside my mark for the qualitative and evaluative assessments I have done in biology. I’m looking forward to getting all these practicals out of the way so I can pretend I’ve never met those two horrible-to-type words ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’ until next year.

I’ve been thinking back to how much I used to love playing The Settlers as a child over the weekend. That game ate a chunk of my childhood. I was never particularly brilliant at it, but it’s still to this day one of the few games I’ve spent a whole day playing almost non-stop. I started looking for games that are similar to Settlers I and II, the two games that focused more on the strategic building and resource gathering aspects rather than the more combat-heavy sequels. This search brought me to a free game called Widelands. I’ve watched a few gameplay videos today and it seems to be exactly what I was looking for. I can’t wait to play this game myself and feel the nostalgia of all those happy memories flooding back.

My PS3 and Xbox gaming has pretty much ground to a halt since my January exams. The only game I’ve really been playing is Persona 4 on the PS2. It’s been great to get back into playing this. I’m pleased to say I still love listening to the soundtrack as much as I did back when I featured it on Musical Monday. I’ve made it one of my gaming targets to finish the story this year. The extended hiatus it’s been on really didn’t do it justice.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. I’m off to get my hands on Widelands now. Have any of you played Widelands or Settlers? If so, please comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on those games or any similar games you enjoy.